Officials delay giving probe to FBI

WASHINGTON -- The FBI was preparing Tuesday to take over the EgyptAir Flight 990 investigation, indicating suspicions the crash was a criminal act, but the move was delayed at the request of Egypt.

U.S. officials sought to have the FBI take control of the investigation from the National Transportation Safety Board amid indications someone in the cockpit prayed just before the jet went into its fatal plunge, The Associated Press learned.

''Given this further development, it is only prudent for the National Transportation Safety Board to fully evaluate this information prior to any final decision on whether the responsibility for this investigation should transfer to the Federal Bureau of Investigation,'' Hall said.

He told a news conference he spoke with FBI Director Louis Freeh on Tuesday and Freeh agreed.

Hall said the government would hire a private salvage concern to retrieve the airplane wreckage from the ocean floor. He said officials were particularly interested in the cockpit.

The timing of the prayer -- before the jet's autopilot was disengaged and the plane dived from 33,000 feet -- raised suspicions that Flight 990 was deliberately brought down.

Hall said further analysis of the cockpit voice recorder was needed on the meaning of the prayer.

''As long as there are differences in the interpretation -- and there are significant differences in the cultural interpretations of some expressions on the recorder -- I think it is unfair ... for us to characterize it,'' he said.

Egyptian officials sought and received a delay of several days in the turnover, a law enforcement source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The source said Egyptian experts wanted more time to analyze the apparently religious remarks on the cockpit tape so they might contribute more information.

Earlier Tuesday, two U.S. officials speaking on condition of anonymity, said the FBI would take over the investigation. ''The NTSB investigates accidents, the FBI investigates other things,'' said one of the officials.

The prayer was apparently spoken by someone in the co-pilot's seat, but it was unclear whether it was the co-pilot, a source speaking on condition of anonymity told the AP.

The evidence of the prayer and its timing emerged when information from the flight data recorder was synchronized with sounds picked up by the cockpit voice recorder, Clinton administration officials told the AP.

The wording of the prayer was not disclosed.

Although the phrase heard on the cockpit recorder was characterized as a prayer, that doesn't necessarily mean it was related to the cause of the plunge. Arabic speakers commonly make references to God in everyday statements, and this is particularly true of Egyptians. For instance, the phrase ''inshallah,'' or ''God willing,'' is frequently used in everyday conversation for the most mundane statements.

Investigators from the NTSB and FBI with Arabic interpreters were continuing to analyze the plane's ''black box'' tapes to learn more about the meaning of the prayer and whether it was connected to the disaster.

Yusri Hamid, an EgyptAir pilot who often flew with the two pilots assigned to Flight 990, said Tuesday that neither Capt. Ahmed el-Habashy nor co-pilot Adel Anwar would intentionally or erroneously cause the plane to crash. Hamid dismissed speculation that the prayer could indicate the plane was crashed as part of a suicide mission.

''Any pilot who sees he is heading toward trouble will say religious prayers, whether he is a Muslim or a Christian,'' said Hamid, 59.

The plane, bound for Cairo, crashed about 40 minutes after taking off from New York.

The flight data recorder shows the Boeing 767 was cruising normally at 33,000 feet until its autopilot was turned off, its nose pointed sharply down, its throttles cut back and engines shut off. The plane then rose from the dive and gained height briefly before breaking up and crashing about 60 miles south of the Massachusetts island of Nantucket.

Some American pilots have said they cannot think of an emergency situation that would prompt the crew to take those steps.

A senior intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there still was no clear evidence that terrorism was involved.

President Clinton, during his trip to Turkey, was briefed Tuesday by National Security Adviser Sandy Berger on what has been learned and on the course of the investigation.

Freeh had met Tuesday with Attorney General Janet Reno to go over final arrangements for the transfer of the investigation, an administration official said.

Freeh also met Egypt's ambassador to the United States, Nabil Fahmy.

Hamid, who piloted EgyptAir's flight from New York to Cairo on Sunday, said there were possible explanations other than a suicide or a crime. He said the pilots could have cut the engines to try to slow a downward plunge following an explosion or another catastrophic event.

''If you are in a dangerous position and you do not know what to do, you may do almost anything,'' he said.

''They are going down. The speed is faster and faster. The plane can collapse. They are trying to reduce the speed, so they (turn) off the engines to reduce the speed.''

An alarm that sounded midway through the rapid descent indicated there was no problem at 33,000 feet to cause the sudden drop. The flight data recorder also showed that the plane's elevators -- the two horizontal flaps on the plane's tail that move down or up in unison to raise or lower the plane's nose -- were at different angles during the descent.

Investigators are trying to determine if the split may have been caused by two people struggling for control in the cockpit, the plane's breakup or a jam in one of the elevators.

If investigators conclude the plane was brought down by foul play, they will try to determine whether the perpetrator was assisted by a terrorist group or acted alone because of a personal problem, an investigator said.